Played through this game over the course of a couple months, and I had a good time with it. While the movement and platforming are fun, I feel the setting and atmosphere are the highlights of this game. The environments and views of this game are a feast for the eyes, with everything draped in this wonderful neon cell shading which really sells the feeling of otherworldliness to the setting. It'll even burst into these explosions of color when completing something substantial, and it really adds impact and emotion to the experience.
The story was also pretty engaging. A lot of the optional content in this game is story focused, and I enjoyed learning about the stories of different people who lived in this area. Sometimes I enjoyed this side content even more than the main content, and it felt satisfying completing the stories of some of these side characters.
However when it came to the actual gameplay, I honestly felt a bit underwhelmed. To it's core, it's a game about momentum platforming with light puzzle aspects. There is combat, but it's surface level to the point where enemies feel not dissimilar to the variety of environmental hazards. The movement is pretty fun though, you can hold a button to initiate a skate and press another for a quick boost. Everything from the main objectives and bosses are essentially movement puzzles, where you have to complete mini platforming time trials to progress. There is some variety to these, but personally they weren't too engaging. For the most part they felt pretty easy, and I was playing on hard. The biggest issue for me was it's use in the bosses. While the bosses had super cool designs and all looked very unique, actually fighting the bosses felt very samey. They "attack", give you the opportunity to hop on, complete a time trial, rinse and repeat x3. I felt that the only difference between them was how you actually got onto the bosses, but it was always super apparent and quite easy to do so. I found myself fighting the bosses less because I enjoyed it and morseso to simply unlock the next area.
All things considered, I had a good time. It took me about 10 hours to complete this game, and I achieved 100%, so it'd probably take an hour or so less if you weren't going for that. While I had my gripes about the core gameplay loop, actually playing the game every couple of weeks was quite relaxing, and the ending was shockingly awesome. I recommend the game if you can get it at a decent discount.
The story was also pretty engaging. A lot of the optional content in this game is story focused, and I enjoyed learning about the stories of different people who lived in this area. Sometimes I enjoyed this side content even more than the main content, and it felt satisfying completing the stories of some of these side characters.
However when it came to the actual gameplay, I honestly felt a bit underwhelmed. To it's core, it's a game about momentum platforming with light puzzle aspects. There is combat, but it's surface level to the point where enemies feel not dissimilar to the variety of environmental hazards. The movement is pretty fun though, you can hold a button to initiate a skate and press another for a quick boost. Everything from the main objectives and bosses are essentially movement puzzles, where you have to complete mini platforming time trials to progress. There is some variety to these, but personally they weren't too engaging. For the most part they felt pretty easy, and I was playing on hard. The biggest issue for me was it's use in the bosses. While the bosses had super cool designs and all looked very unique, actually fighting the bosses felt very samey. They "attack", give you the opportunity to hop on, complete a time trial, rinse and repeat x3. I felt that the only difference between them was how you actually got onto the bosses, but it was always super apparent and quite easy to do so. I found myself fighting the bosses less because I enjoyed it and morseso to simply unlock the next area.
All things considered, I had a good time. It took me about 10 hours to complete this game, and I achieved 100%, so it'd probably take an hour or so less if you weren't going for that. While I had my gripes about the core gameplay loop, actually playing the game every couple of weeks was quite relaxing, and the ending was shockingly awesome. I recommend the game if you can get it at a decent discount.